Low-Stress Hyperbranched Polymer/Silica Nanostructures Produced by UV Curing, Sol/Gel Processing and Nanoimprint Lithography

Nanocomposite materials based on a HBP and silica are produced using either a dual-cure sol/gel and photopolymerization process or by mixing silica nanoparticles with the HBP. In both cases the conversion of the HBP is independent of composition and obeys a time-intensity superposition with power-law dependence on UV intensity. Optimization of the dual-cure process leads to transparent sol/gel composites with ultrafine structures. These materials systematically outperform the particulate composites, including an increase of the glass transition temperature of 63 degrees C and a process-induced internal stress as low as 2.5MPa. Nano-sized gratings are produced from the sol/gel composites by low-pressure UV nanoimprint lithography.

Low-Stress UV-Curable Hyperbranched Polymer Nanocomposites for High-Precision Devices

Valérie Geiser

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the process-structure-property relationships of UV-curable hyperbranched polymer (HBP)/silica nanocomposites. Special attention was paid to the interplay between photo-conversion, rheological behavior, shrinkage, and stress dynamics. This knowledge was used to maximize the shape fidelity and dimensional stability of imprinted nano-patterns made with these nanocomposites. Two different processing routes, resulting in different nanocomposite morphologies, were compared. The first and more conventional approach was ultrasonic, solvent-assisted mixing with solid silica nanoparticles followed by UV curing, which led to a discrete dispersion of silica particles in the matrix. The second and more novel approach was a dual-cure process combining UV and sol-gel processing with liquid tetraethyl orthosilicate. The sol-gel process, using a low-viscosity organometallic precursor, overcame the potential processing issue of the highly viscous particulate nanocomposites and led to a hybrid material with a homogeneous silica network at nanometer scale. Rheological analysis of silica nanoparticle suspensions up to the concentrated regime in the HBP showed an exponential increase of the viscosity with the particle fraction for well-dispersed discrete particle systems. A liquid-to-solid transition occurred in the 5 to 10 vol% range, which was correlated with an immobilized layer of polymer hydrogen-bonded to the silanol groups on the surface of the particles, as was confirmed by calorimetric analysis. Polymerization kinetics of HBP nanocomposites and hybrids were analyzed by means of photo differential scanning calorimetry using an autocatalytic model. A time-intensity-superposition principle with power-law dependence was established, which invalidated the classic radiation dose equivalence principle. Gelation and modulus build-up were monitored using photo-rheology. The calorimetric and rheological data were combined in the form of time-intensity-transformation diagrams. It was found that gelation was delayed with respect to conversion up to 36% when lower UV intensities were used, which favored reduce polymerization stresses. The dynamics of polymerization shrinkage and internal stress build-up were investigated using photo-hyphenated interferometry and beam-bending methods. The linear shrinkage of the HBP was as low as 4.5%, which was further reduced to 3.3% with the addition of 20 vol% nanoparticles. The residual stress of HBP/SiO2 nanocomposites was below 5.5 MPa. That is well below the level of standard non-reinforced resins, in spite of an increased stiffness. For the sol-gel hybrids with 20 vol% SiO2, stress reduction by 50% with simultaneous stiffness increase by 20% with respect to corresponding particulate composites was demonstrated. The coefficient of thermal expansion was also lowered by 30%. Finally, nanogratings with a period of 360 nm and a step height of 12 nm were fabricated using UV-nanoimprint lithography with a glass or nickel master in a low-pressure (max. 6 bar) and rapid (≈1 min) process. Stable gratings were imprinted in the composite material containing up to 25 vol% of silica nanoparticles, despite the high viscosity of such compositions. Thanks to the exudation of a HBP-rich surface layer, the shape fidelity in terms of period of the replicated patterns was within 98% of the master, with shape distortion increasing with internal stress. The obtained nanogratings were used as a substrate for grated high refractive index TiO2 waveguides and then applied as wavelength-interrogated optical sensors (WIOS). An immunoassay with the polymer WIOS showed the same ultrahigh detection sensitivity as the standard glass-based devices. Therefore, the novel polymer-based sensor should be useful to probe contaminants in liquids with concentrations as low as a few ppb.

EPFL2010

Light trapping polymer-based coatings for cost effective flexible thin film photovoltaics

Marina Aymara González Lazo

Thin film silicon solar cells benefit from a lower fabrication cost than crystalline silicon cells, but they have a lower efficiency. The aim of this thesis was to explore the light-management capabilities of sub-micron polymer-based textures, both for the back reflector and for the front encapsulation of thin film silicon solar cells. The thin active layers of these devices require some form of photon path length enhancement to increase their efficiency. For this purpose, light trapping textures were replicated using transparent low shrinkage acrylate hyperbranched polymer nanocomposites. To enable low pressure replication of textures with enhanced mechanical performance, silica nanoparticles and silicon-based sol-gel precursors were combined to create novel low viscosity hybrid nanocomposite resins. Indeed, the viscosity of these hybrid suspensions was found to be one to two orders of magnitude lower than that of particulate suspensions with an equivalent silica loading. The hybrid resins were cured by combined UV polymerization and condensation, and the mechanical performance of the resulting nanocomposites was characterized in terms of their Vickers microhardness. The Vickers microhardness increased from 112 MPa for the unmodified polymer matrix to 190 MPa and 148 MPa for the hybrid nanocomposites and particulate nanocomposites, respectively, at 20 vol% silica, and reached as much as 287 MPa for the hybrid nanocomposites at 30 vol% silica. For the back reflector, light scattering (LS) textures in the form of random sub-micron pyramidal features were replicated in the nanocomposites using a nickel template and UV-nanoimprint lithography. The influence of nanoparticle content and pressure on the morphology and light scattering properties of the replicas was studied using scanning electron microscopy and optical analysis. The roughness and coherence length of the textures were similar to those of the template for all the compositions and process pressures investigated. After optimization of the dual-cure process, very high replication fidelity could be obtained in each case, leading to haze greater than 99 % over the whole of the visible light spectrum and very effective light scattering performance for a broad range of angles. A durable antireflective (AR) front encapsulation is also key to enhancing the photovoltaic performance of thin film silicon solar cells. The AR performance of hyperbranched polymer nanocomposite textures replicated from a moth eye pattern using UV-nanoimprint lithography was established both experimentally and through simulations. Optimum patterns were found on the basis of effective medium theory (EMT) to be arrays of paraboloids with a periodicity of 340 nm, which provided stable AR performance for aspect ratios in the range of 0.6 to 1.75. Good agreement was obtained between the simulated and measured optical behavior of such AR arrays, with a normal reflectance in the visible range of around 4 % when using a glass substrate. The simulations also predicted a reduction in the hemispherical reflectance from 15 % to 6 % for this texture. A hierarchical texture was replicated from a lotus leaf into the hyperbranched polymer modified with a perfluorinated acrylate, and the same material was also used to replicate the AR moth eye texture. In both cases, the replication fidelity was again found to be excellent and the textures exhibited improved hydrophobicity. [...]

EPFL2015

UV-nanoimprint lithography and large area roll-to-roll texturization with hyperbranched polymer nanocomposites for light-trapping applications

Caroline Calderone, Philippe Couty, Diego Fischer, Marina Aymara González Lazo, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Yves Leterrier, Jan-Anders Månson, Rémy Teuscher

Light-trapping textures were produced in hyperbranched polymer (HBP) silica nanocomposites using a UV-nanoimprint lithography (UVNIL) replication method, either in batch or roll-to-roll processes. The hardness of the HBP was found to increase by a factor of 2.5 with the addition of 50 vol% of nanoparticles. A nickel master with random sub-micron pyramidal structures was used to imprint nanocomposites containing up to 20 vol% of silica on a polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate. The influence of nanoparticle fraction and pressure on the texture morphology and light scattering properties of the replicas was studied using scanning electron microscopy and optical analysis. The roughness and coherence length of the textures were similar to those of the master for all investigated compositions and process pressures. Likewise, the light scattering performance of aluminum-coated texturized nanocomposites was identical to that of the metal template, with a haze of 90% over the 400–800 nm spectral range. Thin film amorphous silicon solar cells were deposited on the texturized substrates using a large-area roll-to-roll process. The photocurrent of these devices was found to be 23% higher than the reference value of a flat cell.